The daily "getting ready for first AG" thread

[theschick]

The daily "getting ready for first AG" thread

Well, I'm adding another one to the list of 1000s. Why, because its a little scary and exciting, and I'd like some hand holding through the process. I've read through all the tutorials here many times, and I understand there are 100s of ways to do things, and they all produce beer. Specific questions I'll highlight in blue.

My first AG will be a DFH 60 min clone from AHS. I've never had this beer (not available here), so I won't be able to tell how close I get - I don't care, it should be tasty either way.

My equipment includes all the junk from the extract beginners kit you get at any LHBS. I also have 1 keggle (with temp, sight glass, and release valve) and a SP14 burner. I built the big orange cooler MLT. I also have another keggle, but without the additions, it just a keg with the top cut out, that's it.

I've downloaded beersmith. In checking beersmith, AHS's instructions, and the popular DFH clone on this site, they are all a little different (of course). Since AHS's instructions seem to be geared towards fly sparging, I'm dropping that. I'm all about batch sparging for the first time.

Grains for this kit:
12lb pale malt (2 row)
6 oz brown malt

In beersmith, I selected "single infusion, medium body, batch sparge" Is that what I want to choose? I also selected "adjust temp for equipment".

Heat water 3.87 gallons (1.25 quarts x lbs) to 170 degrees (does this number take preheating the mlt into account, or do I need to add another 10 degrees?). I know I can plug in grain temp to help.
Put water in MLT
Slowly add grains, stir to mix. Hopefully will end up around 154 for 60 min. AHS said 150, hopefully this won't make a huge difference.
Vorlauf
Drain MLT into a bucket, since my kettle is being used to heat sparge.
Batch sparge with 5.24 gallons of 168 degree water, and let sit for 10 mins or so. Would you recommend dividing this into two sparges, and drain between them? I assume beersmith came up with this amount by what it thinks the grain absorbed. Basically the amount I drained subtracted from the amount I should boil.
vorlauf, drain again, and dump everything into my kettle. Ideally I would have collected 6.82 gallons for the 60 min boil.

Rest of the steps are no problem from here.

I can already see the need for a second burner, so I can have my BK going the same time I have my sparge water heating. Someday!

I don't yet understand if I should do the whole mash-out process, and if you just add that to the existing water sitting in the MLT (prior to draining).

Okay, critique me!

 

[JonK331]

I think you are good to go. Only thing I might advise is that batch sparging is a shortcut and I don't really think it saves any time. Fly/continuous sparging is what the pros do so why mess with it? I've tried both methods and much prefer fly sparge. Remember that you have to stir and vorlauf every time you add another "batch" of sparge water. Just my 2cents. If someone else would explain the purpose of the mash out I would appreciate as well. It seems to me that the mash out is a good way to strip unwanted tannins off the grain. Also, the wort is going to boil anyway so what's the point of stopping the enzymes before the boil. Seems like a waste of energy to me.

 

[schoolmaster]

First off, don't sweet it, things will turn out great. I'd highly recommend that you write out the entire process with times, temperatures and measurements in advance. This way you will know how much water, what temp and when. You don't want to have to figure that kind of thing out while you are brewing. This will also allow you to take notes on how well you met the desired time/temps so you can adjust the process later.

To answer some of the questions....
1. I prefer to use 1.5 qt per lb or grain. The mash will be a little thinner and easier to work with. That means you would heat 4.5 gallons of water to mash with. That water, along with the grain should all easily fit into your 10-gallon cooler.

2. The mash / sparge type in beer smith should be fine.

3. I like to use the strike water calculator at http://www.brewheads.com/strike.php It takes into account the grain temp. Give it a try.

4. You should not need to sparge in two batches. Personally I'd increase the strike water volume and then sparge with less. I usually mash with a 1.5 ratio and then run all that wort into the kettle. Once I see how much I've run off, I will sparge with the exact amount of water I need to get to my preboil volume. With the mash you are going to have absorption, so you will loose some of the water, but with the sparge the grains are already wet, so your losses will be very little. I've found this to be an easy way to collect the correct amount of preboil volume.

 

[ian-atx]

-with regards to the preheating of tun: the strike water calculator I use I usually just leave thermal mass of the tun out of it, and use the temp of the grain. Say the calculator says I should have water at 167 to equal a mash temp of 154, then I heat my water to about 10 degrees over 167. Then add the water to the cooler, close the lid and let it heat up for a few. Take the lid off and check temp. I usually start dough-in when I am a couple degrees above the calculated strike temp. This gives me some room to allow for cooling while stirring the hell out of the mash to avoid doughballs and whatnot. Then take temps at various spots in the tun and I am usually pretty spot on with the temp. If one or two degrees off, no big deal.

-AHS recommends 150, beersmith recommends 154...the higher temp may leave a bit more body/residual sweetness than 150. Choose one and then taste the results after kegged/bottled and determine if you would like the next beer sweeter or drier.

-Some poeple do the double sparge, some don't. I would just leave it with the single sparge for your initial go-round.

-good luck and don't sweat it too much. Have a good checklist on brewday, and take notes so you can identify issues if the beer turns out wrong or there are things you want to change. Most of this stuff gets dialed in from experience over multiple batches and learning your particular system.

 

[CrapulencePants]

I'll throw my tow cents in and say just go for it and keep really detailed notes. I kept detailed notes for the first six batches or so and was able to locate a few problems with my process.

The two biggies for me were the temp loss going from keggle to mash tun and the deadspace in the mash tun.